Tuesday May 8th/ Wednesday May 9th

After approximately 19 hours of travel, I arrived at my hotel in London at 5:40 a.m. eastern time. After flying from Knoxville to Chicago, and Chicago to London, I finally made my way across the Pond. I was actually pretty proud of myself, I found the Underground and rode it straight from the airport to the station closest to our hotel, navigating to the hotel from the Russell Square Station.

The flight to London went as well as it could,in addition to having two interesting events to make for a comical beginning. As I was preparing to board my plane and texting Liz, I overhead a large man next to me talking on the phone, saying, "Alright, when he gets close, take him down." After hearing this, I immediately looked up and made eye contact with the gentlemen, trying to act as if I hadn't heard his conversation. He must not have cared that I heard, as he continued, "He's getting close... everyone in position.... alright, now!" As soon as these words left his mouth, he and 3 other agents grabbed a man in the American Airlines terminal directly beside me and immediately placed him in handcuffs and asked him to follow the police officers. While the officers were undercover, they immediately showed their badges as well as the guns holstered to their waists. As I looked in disbelief, they escorted the man out of the terminal and onto the runway where a paddy wagon awaited the man. While I still am not sure why the man was arrested, it made for an interesting wait for my flight.  

Following the arrest, I boarded the plane and was sitting in my window seat, looking out as they were loading everyone's bags on. As I was gazing onto the runway, all of the sudden I looked out and one of the baggage cart drivers ran over a passenger's bag and it literally exploded. People's clothes were all over the runway and the driver was almost falling over he was laughing so hard. So in case you didn't know already, the baggage guys really don't care about your bags. 

After meeting up with my classmates and teachers at our hotel, we embarked on a rainy walk around London. We were fortunate enough to visit the British Museum, where I saw such artifacts as the Rosetta Stone. We followed up our quick tour of the museum with a walk to Picadilly Circus as well as Trafalgar Square. We concluded our evening by eating dinner at a local restaurant, where I ate the local fare of fish and chips as well as two much-needed pints of beer. In all honesty, we actually walked around and saw a few other notable areas and items, but with approximately 3 hours of sleep in a 36 hour span, my memory escapes me at this point of the other notable items seen on my first day in London. Hopefully some much needed sleep tonight will rest me for the eventful days and weeks to come. Thanks for following my writing on my travels abroad.